Taipei, Taiwan

After our two day visit to The Taroko National Park, we took the train back to Taipei where we spent the next three days.  Taipei is the capital of Taiwan and despite it's modern facade, the city has many historic sites that preserve the essence of its traditional culture.


Taipei 101
Taipei 101 is the world's second tallest building standing at a height of 1666 feet (508 metres).  It held the title of the world's tallest building from 2004 - 2010, but moved to second place with the completion of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.  
Taipei 101 is an impressive looking building with some equally impressive features.  Not only has it been designed to withstand the strongest earthquakes of the last 2500 years and gale winds of 60 meters per second (thanks to a 660 metric ton passive wind damper on the 88th floor), but the foundation is fortified by 380 piles driven deep into the ground and bedrock.  Other features include the building's glass walls which can sustain impacts of 8 tons and are eco-friendly with heat and UV-filter treatments.  For safety, all floors are equipped with computerised fire prevention and extinguishing systems, and safety evacuation corridors and staircases.  
If that wasn't enough, Taipei 101 also boasts the world's second fastest elevator (top speed of 3314 feet/1010 meters per minute).  Taipei 101 has 67 elevators in total, with two going to the outdoor observation deck on the 91st floor.  On the day we visited Taipei 101, we could only go up to the 89th floor, as the 91st floor was closed due to the preparations underway for the New Year's Eve fireworks display.  
The indoor observatory on the 89th floor gave us commanding views of the city in all directions (even though it was a rather cloudy and grey day) and it was here that we got a true sense of how densely populated the city is. The elevator ride up was extremely effortless, not to mention impressive as it took us 37 seconds to get from the 5th floor to the 89th floor.  The elevators are pressurized, so we didn't experience any ear-popping or funny sensations, it was a wonderful ride up and then an equally great ride down which took 45 seconds.  

Longshan Temple

Originally built in 1738 during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, Longshan Temple is one of Taipei's best-known temples.  Like many temples in Taiwan, Longshan is multidenominational, so although this predominantly Buddhist temple is home to the deity Guanyin (the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy), it is also home to Mazu (the Taoist Goddess of the Sea) and over 100 other deities.  We visited this temple early one morning and witnessed crowds of worshippers coming together to engage in worship and chanting.  The chanting created a wonderful energy and atmosphere.    

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall
This Hall with its conspicuous yellow roof, is dedicated to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, the founder of China's Nationalist party, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the man who is considered to be the founder of modern China.  In 1912, following the collapse of the Qing dynasty, San Yat-Sen declared the birth of the Republic of China (or Taiwan as it is commonly known), even though at that time, Taiwan was still under Japanese rule (Taiwan remained under Japanese rule until 1945, when Japan was defeated in World War II and was forced to cede all overseas possessions). 
A huge statue of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen sits in the lobby, guarded by two sentries.  The Hall itself occupies an entire city block and is used as a cultural centre for concerts, performances and special events.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall with its white walls and blue octagonal roof, is one of Taipei's iconic monuments.  The ground floor of the monument houses a museum dedicated to Chiang Kai-shek's life and also tells the story of the role he played in Taiwan's history after 1945.  In 1945 after Japan's defeat in World War II, Taiwan was placed under the administrative control of the Nationalist Party (the Kuomintang or KMT), who at that time was under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek. 
Following the defeat of Japan, civil war broke out on the mainland between Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) and Mao Tse-tung's Communist forces.  By 1949, Moa Tse-tung's Communists had driven the KMT from the mainland and Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan.  
Moa Tse-tung declared the birth of the People's Republic of China on 1st October 1949, which left the Republic of China (Taiwan, Penghu and a number of small islands off the Chinese coast) as a separate entity.  This separate entity was quickly set up as a military zone to hold back any attack by the Communists.  Being in control of Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek began laying down land-reforms and policies that would lay the foundation for Taiwan's future economic success.  Although many people acknowledge Chiang Kai-shek's role in Taiwan's success, many cannot forget The White Terror era of the 1950's.  This was a frightening time in Taiwan's history, as any kind of political dissent was squashed and people literally disappeared if they spoke out against the government.  Many saw it as a campaign to purge the island of any political activists.  Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975 and was succeeded by his son, Chiang Ching-kuo.

A huge bronze sculpture of Chiang Kai-shek is housed in the main hall and to get to the hall, visitors have to ascend a flight of 89 steps (representing Chiang Kai-shek's age when he died).  Behind the sculpture, etched in the marble are the Chinese characters for "ethics", "democracy" and "science", the "Three Principles of the People".  The sculpture is flanked by two guards and on the day we visited, we got there in time to see the guards leave their posts for the day.  They were then joined by other guards and proceeded down the plaza for the flag-lowering ceremony.  

The large plaza in front of the memorial hall is flanked by the National Theatre on the one side and the National Concert Hall on the other side.

National Palace Museum

The National Palace Museum was originally founded in 1925 in the Forbidden City in Beijing.  The exterior of the National Palace Museum in Taipei even mimics that of the Palace Museum located inside the Forbidden City.  Many of the items on display at the National Palace Museum were once housed at the Palace Museum in Beijing, but were moved to Taiwan in 1949 at the command of Chiang Kai-shek during the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists (KMT) and the Communists.   

The National Palace Museum is home to the world's largest and most valuable collection of Chinese art, from the Neolithic times down to the end of the Qing Dynasty in the early 20th century.  The museum has over 680,000 items that include procelains, bronzes, jades, sculptures, paintings, caligraphy and rare books spanning 8000 years of Chinese culture.  Unfortunately due to the large number of items, not all can be displayed at the same time.  There are approximately 15,000 items on display at any given time and the displays are rotated every 3 months.  

Some of the objects on display were very impressive, but unfortunately we are not able to share what we saw, as we were not allowed to take photos inside the museum.

Taiwanese meal with Lara
We were fortunate that we had Lara, our Taiwanese friend from Toronto, visiting Taipei at the same time we were there.  Lara took us out for dinner one night to a Taiwanese restaurant, as she wanted us to try some traditional Taiwanese food.  Fortunately for us, lots of Taiwanese dishes feature fish and seafood, so there were quite a few dishes that we could eat  We left the ordering up to Lara and she picked some tasty dishes.  The one dish that was new to us was the delicacy Wu yu zi - salted and dried mullet fish roe, which was served with slices of fresh Daikon, a perfect compliment.  Wu yu zi is very similar to the Japanese Karasumi or Sardinian Bottarga.  We also enjoyed prawns, oysters, calamari and crab.  We had a great evening with Lara and her friend, but unfortunately we had such a good time that although we took photos of the food, we forgot to take pictures of ourselves with Lara.

Shilin District and the Shilin Night Market
Shilin is a situated north of the city centre and it is a very crowded and busy area, especially at night when it become a carnival of people snacking and shopping.  This area is known for its great street food and the many street stalls selling an array of goods.  This area is also home to the famous Shilin Night Market.
Night markets are among Taipei's most popular tourist spots.  These night markets get underway at dusk and run all through the night. Vendors offering everything from accessories and clothing to food and carnival games can be found here.  We even saw a vendor that allowed people to catch their own shrimp and then provided the service of cooking the caught shrimp.
There are a few of these night markets scattered around the city, but the biggest is the Shilin Night Market.  We visited this area after our visit to the National Palace Museum (also located in this district) and we had an interesting time experiencing some of the city's night-life.  

Shilin Food Court

Situated in the heart of the Shilin Night Market is the Shilin Food Court, an underground maze of food stalls selling an array of dishes including the famous chou doufu (stinky tofu - tofu that has been fermented to a point of smelling pungent).  This food court was packed with food vendors and patrons.  It was so busy that in some places we were literally pressed up against other people and were pushed along by the crowd.  Needless to say it seemed like pandemonium, but it was interesting and felt completely safe.    

Jianguo Weekend Holiday Jade Market
We visited this Jade Market on our last weekend in Taipei.  It is one of the largest markets for Jade and semiprecious stones in Asia and there was an array of jewellery, feng-shui and religious items for sale.  

Jianguo Weekend Holiday Flower Market
After our visit to the Jianguo Jade Market, we walked across the street to the Jianguo Weekend Holiday Flower Market.  This is a huge impressive market with a cornucopia of flowers and plants on display and for sale.